Ellen Allien: "An album is a work from a period in one's life. Constantly rushing around through clubs makes me feel distracted. I'm no longer grounded. Instead, I'm still floating somewhere inside this club action, fluttering through the night, standing between the bass drum and the emotions of the people. I'm totally absent. Often I'm no longer inside my own body. When I have more time, when I'm on holiday or just lying around in my bed, I can finally start to process things. I don't often have this peacefulness in my life, and it's the same with music. Learning to say no is a virtue, being able to concentrate on only one thing - my own thing. Making an album mainly means coming down, relaxing, finding myself again, making contact with myself again, finding out where I want to go, showing what I'm capable of. It's a nice process, returning to the things I like."

thrill. a feeling. feeling the body in the world.goose bumps. it's the most sensible reaction to the world and the quietest and loudest at the same time.noticing, perceiving the world - realizing your self only by taking in the world. liberty, feeling free. feeling your self while feeling free. to be in the music; beeing the music itself. feeling the sounds entering the body.more goose bumps, the tickle at the surface.the sounds are tickeling under the surface.so, the body twitches, moves, until it finds a rhythm, which can only be an mage of the sound.no marching, but a dance, synchronized by devotion.the profession is creativity.this is a task of realizing the conscientous self.withdrawing control so that no pain is noticeable.only this itch. crossing borders - and yet this passage constitutes the threshold between the body and the outer world. it makes the body part of the world.twisting buttons until hands bleed.draw the figure of intuition with a mouse.only feel the stormy propensity from the inside.it's the inside wich wants to be outside.music from the inside which wants to be outside.not controlled, only filtered by the structure of beats.the code of the soul, a coding of the soul in zero and one. in the areas in between there is no emptiness. that is where the concrete part is developed.the clarity. a clarity which only stops when thinking recedes. ecstasy.the thrill of one'sown thrills.(how beautiful.)

In the meantime, Ellen Allien no longer places the primary emphasis on testing her own abilities, perspectives (Stadtkind) and links to current movements in electronic music (Berlinette). Rather, her third album "Thrills" makes a clear statement: Her passions have become her profession. This also means that she has withdrawn from the daily grind of being a label manager to allow herself as much freedom as possible - namely to define herself as an artist, with all it entails. And that can only work based on the well-oiled team at BPitch Control giving her the necessary logistical support. Concentration is vital. Creative expression has always been her outlet in the search for the thrill of sensing and feeling. On "Thrills" this builds up to a great moment of clarity. Ellen Allien puts her two feet on the ground and lets her thoughts play in the clouds. Thrills may be her balance between concentration and relaxation. She perceives excitement as a single moment, in which the half-closed eyes show the surroundings in a blur, when one can feel a slight tingling beneath the scalp. This bodily sensation, of being "here and now", may be an intention of "Thrills", to hold on tight to this one moment of clarity. For Ellen Allien, music is expression and at the same time, a channel. "Thrills" is a result of excellent teamwork with Holger Zielske (Smash TV) with whom she also produced "Stadtkind" and "Berlinette". But the making of "Thrills" is not only defined by concentrated and experienced working methods. The ability to let go and to feel like oneself also requires a very free and relaxed approach to handling production technologies. With new-old units like the Roland 808 and an ARP 2600 a much warmer, non-digital sound emerged, which also altered the music in a new and at the same time an old way. On "Thrills" one can now interpret Ellen Allien's search for a way to merge man and technology as an intermediate result among many others. Nevertheless, despite these recurring sound frames, Ellen Allien remains a tinkerer who objects to staying in comfortable, wellknown surroundings. The ARP 2600 has become Ellen Allien's new favourite instrument, for which she searched for two months on Ebay. Her love of technology is also elementary to "Thrills", while always remaining a means to an end - not vice versa. Ellen Allien allows herself the freedom she needs to let out this inner thrill, this ecstasy, which can be experienced by producer and consumers alike. Her years of travel, the incredible flood of sensations, the filtering, capturing and framing, has, meanwhile, helped Ellen Allien to perceive herself more strongly. She no longer feels lost in this world - on the contrary. The relaxedness which emanates from "Thrills", without being slow or chilly, is a sign of maturity. Ellen Allien has found her musical path, her orientation. She has built her own system of coordinates. She seeks out traces, and finds them. Ellen Allien's musical future is a link between past and present even though she thinks that "future is dust".The clarity of sound on "Thrills", the coherence, which finds its basis in Ellen Allien's personal history, refers to memories - ones that were really experienced and not just re-produced feelings - which are still so moving that they not only become the sound of a whole generation, but also the soundtrack to her own biography. Ellen Allien's technoid, electroid roots, the everlasting game of asking the question "What else can you do with it?" shows that techno has not come to an end by a long way - on the contrary. Because with every shout of "Techno Is Dead", it is newly born with a different face, which at least on "Thrills" is very coherent and self-contained and invites you to linger. And all this time, Ellen Allien's orientation toward what rocks the hardest, what makes the dance floor boil over, is emblematic of her life and experience as a DJ. The bass is always the common thread and all the vocals and melodies twirl around it.

MAKE ME MAGMAbpc105magma remixes by the mfa & modeselektorrelease: 18.04.2005

with "magma" ellen allien sets out to loosen us up fo her third album "thrills" (bpc106). everybody will sweat in this small workout because magma is like a little steam turbine with which ellen allien softly digs up the dance floor so that we can dance at the center of the earth, sweating prufusely in the heat. whoever doens't understand that ellen turns more than just a few knobs is, so to speak, not seeing the forest with all the trees in the way. almost fourteen years of techno certainly leave their trace and, one must say of course, they've brought about a bunch of fun and coincidences. ellen allien, our magical fairy, steers the techno of "magma" with a baddass rowdy voice, like swinging around a wild red flag in order to push the limits of the tube even further.

New inches AllienBpitch lady acknowledges[07.03.05 14:19]Their new album brings inches out Allien, citizen of Berlin miracle child of the electrical and Technoszene in May. The album with the name ' Thrills ' comes in the Gloeckchenmonat - punctual to the revival the open air culture. The Beats sounds rather warmly, deep and soft. Breakbeats mix under melodies and gentle Vocals lift the tendency easily in Melancholi. The basses roll only so there - never really aggressively, always seeming and floating.

Perhaps the gentleness of new productions owes Allien to their newest favourite instrument - the ARP2600. Altogether ten TRACKS were brought in for the electronic scene for the new album and point interesting connections from today to yesterday. It knarzt, bleept and wummert - Techno is not not dead, under any circumstances.

I have heard but do not yet possess this album. it's incredibly good. much sparser and darker than Berlinette, much less cosy, much more dancefloor-friendly. Whereas Ellen's live set a few weeks ago was pretty surprising for me (having just heard Berlinette) it makes a lot more sense after listening to Thrills. "Washing Machine Is Speaking" is kind of revelatory.

I dunno but a pal just loaned us the correctly aligned power supply for our ARP 2600 so it's up and running and OH . . . . MY . . . . . GOD . . . . . . what a fucking awesome synthesizer. It truly is like living with R2D2 and the Close Encounters alien theme . . . such great strong rich sounds.

I'm really surprised this hasn't leaked yet! I really can't do it, sorry all, but when it does you've got a treat in store.

also: terrific article/interview in the forthcoming Plan B, out next week. Ellen on the new album: "Thrills feels like me from the inside. To turn myself inside out while I make music is one of my favourite hobbies."

I don't think promos haven't been sent to the US because it is getting domestically released here in the Fall. That's like six months away. Still, I'm sure stores will have it available as an import in the next month or so.

This leaked, I have it and it's off the fucking chain. "Down" sounds like the glitch answer to Planet Rock, while "Magma" sounds like an outtake from Afro Finger And Gel. She even kinda sounds like Mu on that joint.

Hmm. Okay, I gave it a listen and I'm not sure what to think.. it certainly caught me off guard. There's nothing as immediate as "Trash Scapes" or "Wish" or "Alles Sehen"... and it isn't very song driven, very electro-housey... hmm. I like "Down," "She Is With Me" and "Cloudy City" a lot. I'll have to give it a fe wmore listens.

Berlinette always worked like that for me actually. With some serious volume, less of a 'pop' record and more of a crushing dark matrix industrial-tehnnoid beast of a thing. But still totally human, I felt I'd been wanting someone to make a record like that for years without knowing it.

But back to the thread... 'Thrills'. Wow, it's one hell of a left turn of a record! Going to need a lot more listens to properly evaluate. Nabisco didn't reveal what he was excited about above, but I haven't had such nervous anticipation about a follow up since between *'Debut' and 'Post' (!)

*I don't think she's the 'new Björk' fwiw. But she definitly shares a a similar kind of open-minded approach to music. The old one is still fine by me, but I can see where comparisons could be drawn (strong sense of regional identification in their work, working in two languages, vagina + electronic music (lazy), and Ellen has been known to drop her tracks live when DJ-ing but then a lot of people liked that SPT remix. Ahem). Still feels a little tenuous though.

I had a whole couple of pages of thoughts/reactions/feelings scribbled down about just those soulseduction samples! And now I've heard the full thing, well some of it is still applies, but I'd need to add more, change it around some, to describe the new & unexpected parts on here that make me break out into the biggest shit-eating grin ever.

I'm gobsmacked at the almost reckless bravery of it. I mean, she's virtually thrown away with her 'typical' sound set (Stadtkind/Berlinette/Remix Collection) here and doesn't seem bothered about the potential to fail without it this time round. She got new tools and wants to play! :-P

Doesn't sound much like anything else on Bpitch Control at all and it's certainly harder to hear other production influences this time round (Holger Zilske, Sascha Ring etc).

I can't see everyone being pleased, or following her along in this new direction. I get the feeling she's more than ready to accept this though, although 'Cloudy City' and 'She Is With Me' seem like the possible bridging tracks for fans of her earlier stuff.

On a slightly negative note, I think 'Magma' is my least favourite track here so far, feels slightly ugly and it is just me who hates hearing the last track on a record as the single? So glad I got to hear the whole thing early. But then I really wasn't expecting perfection this time out, I know how these things can go (I try and forget how badly 'Army Of Me' prepared me for 'Post'. That record still starts at track two for me.)

But there are many, many things I like about it so far too. Some of this sounds hilariously out-of-control, like Ellen is barely keeping that ARP from bleeping and bouncing out of the studio and into the streets under it's own unstoppable wayward energy.

Her beautiful, subtle yet strong, enigmatic melodies are still here even in all this flowing chaos. I'm not sure how I feel about the comparative lack of vocals so far either, they are there, but often much more direct when used. It still sounds more of a techno thing to me than electro-house, although 'Naked Rain' is kinda deep-house in a way. And 'Down' yeah, is more electro-y. It's just that it's as a whole so much less electro than her previous stuff, and so much weirder, frankly.

If I had to decribe it in less words than I've used so far I'd say: Vaguely Germanic beats meets Giorgio Moroder, LFO & the BBC Radiophonic Workshop.

Thinking of which I wonder whether I should try to hear that Emporer Machine record from last year if I like this. Seemed to be exploring similar territory.

I'm still leaning towards fucking awesome btw, I might have lost the main thrust of my point in all this chatter ;-) There's stuff going on in this record that absolutely kills.

that's too bad. i'm really into it. but i got into it really quickly (much more quickly than berlinette for some reason). which means maybe its TOO immediate, too surface. however i doubt that b/c i think its just very bare bones goodness; as in what is there is there, true .... and with more listening you won't find much more, but the quality of the sounds is so good, it will sustain for a long time. i think the sounds are "classic" in that sense. maybe i'm making too much of it. time will tell

the timbre of that sound (which i assume is the arp) in the opening track is absolutely wonderful. beyond that, i don't even feel like there's much ear candy here. i'm still trying, though, i'm still trying.

Wow, some of you guys seem really excited about this. I was anticipating it like a mofo, and finally had a listen to it last night, and a couple of times today... It's good, but I can't seem to get at where the 'thrill' is. Berlinette blew my mind, whereas this I'm kind of ambiguous toward. The singing on 'the brain is lost' really bugs me.

This album is much more like her live sets than anything she's done on record before - a few weeks before I heard this for the first time I'd seen her at Fabric and had been blown away, and the kind of sounds and textures she was playing with there are pretty much the same as on Thrills - that amazing, lush ARP sound, but at the same time pounding hardcore beats. It's definitely a dancefloor album.

I'm surprised no one else has mentioned 'Washing Machine Is Speaking' yet - that tune is just HUGE.

Still digesting a little but, it's total ear-candy to me (whether thats all the ARP or not I'm unsure). I haven't heard such an original-unlikely-fuzzy-different set of sounds brought together to make a 'dance' record since 'In-Sides', 'Second Toughest...', 'Immer'?? I haven't actually tested those thoughts by listening & comparing, just something that seemed to strike me.

Agree it is kind of more 'immediate' than Berlinette. It's almost too giving at times, almost ever track having some 'peak' ridiculously intense dissolving-into-bliss moment. I think 'epic' is the word indeed. It's still very grounded though, pushing at the machines really hard. In some ways more brutal than Berlinette, less controlled. I'm reckoning I'll probably end up playing this as much as 'Stadtkind' or 'Remix Collection' but not everyday. It's a bit too exhausting for that.

I'm sure some of the dissapointment here is due to the lack of more typically song-like material. I think it's closer to the aims of the more moving vocal-free parts of Stadtkind, or 'Dresden'. Listening to the samples before I'd quite expected 'She Is With Me' to spin off into something with more content (and to have spanked anything on Berlinette, in fact I'd be happy if this was the last track on 'Thrills' I adore it still). I'm still trying to throw off one or two other early-listening presumptions... mostly because they (I realise now) were all retro-active and coloured by expectations this would still be (in full) more like her previous work.

I'm suspecting this may sound a bit clearer/better mixed when the CD/Vinyl arrives too. I ran encspot over the tracks and got fhg/fastenc at flat 192kbps. My hearing isn't usually that sensitive but these leaks are probably a step down quality wise from LAME VBR and I certainly always put on the original of 'Berlinette' when I had the chance, it made a huge difference to my enjoyment.

I dunno, I'm getting sick of thinking about it now and feel like I'm repeating myself. I've lost the will to polish up the track-by-track review thang I started (I'm not even a journo, i just get a lot out of her music & wish I was better at translating why into print (last bit goes for all the music I like too). It's a fantastic record, very complete & holding up to repeat listens but not exactly an easy 'follow-up' and in some ways flawed, anticlimatic even ('Magma' is okay but no 'Open' by comparison in the best-album-closer-ever stakes) also my expectations had been unattainably high. I mean she basically had me for life at Berlinette!

xpost - what Lex said. I saw her play Leeds and she messed with my brain :-)

first part was all jump-up bpitch crowd-rockers a'la 'My Parade', last hour(?) was a smooth glide of weird, dark and interesting (but not cold) electro that just seemed almost magical. 'Cloudy City' could easily have been slotted in there.

yeah its not emotive like berlinette was - not warm or human sounding etc. but its still emotive or atleast sentient - IMO thats the amazing thing about her; she can make for instance the sound that a city might make - and you can recognize it from a human perspective. i think that is what is so magical and futuristic about her music. and its weird too.

As far as IDM goes... really? It seems like the least IDM thing she's done recently. For me 'Berlinette' dragged everything I like about that side of electronic music and gave it back heart, soul & a (4/4) pulse, returned it to techno nicely & without compromise. I still think it's incredibly under-appreciated on that level alone. The closest thing I can think of hearing since in a similar vein might be that Robag Whrume album. Which isn't close at all.

'Under-appreciated' to me probably = I won't be happy till I see her records in Virgin Megastore though ;-)

I guess she has recognition in all the places she wants to. And I'd rather see her cross-over on her own terms eventually.

I suspect that she's taken the IDM-ish direction as far as she felt possible for the time being. I didn't feel like the 'Astral' e.p. was as inspired, even as a dancefloor record & 'Bang Bang' was clearly moving further into the realm of things = more complicated/less danceable. Whereas 'Berlinette' got it absolutely spot on.

yeah its not emotive like berlinette was - not warm or human sounding etc. but its still emotive or atleast sentient - IMO thats the amazing thing about her; she can make for instance the sound that a city might make - and you can recognize it from a human perspective. i think that is what is so magical and futuristic about her music. and its weird too.

brilliantly otm.

Ronan, how do you find Thrills more IDM-y than Berlinette? It seems like a much more straightforwardly dance album to me, whereas Berlinette veered from maximalist bangers to glitchy experiments which could never have been meant for the dancefloor (or, fandango otm).

Fandango and The Lex - thx for the back up. that came from a very vulnerable place! its just interesting- her music is really evocative of the vague energy/imprints people and time make on places. i think the last time i felt that way and was fascinated by it was when little and first hearing some Steeley Dan - which obviously achieves this in a totally different way stylistically - but still similar effect: like the voices, lyrics or storyline just provides a ref point to the main issue - which is the world in which its all happening. with steely you could HEAR the shift in albums as they moved from NY to CA and know those artists were worked off of their surroundings. their music also had a really distilled but humanish, feel kinda like ellens. I'm assuming jazz or probably classical, more likely, goes there alot, but rock/pop? and techno i think was meant for this but I haven't heard many achieve it.

This is still so rad. I wondered if the initial pleasures might fade but they haven't at all.

Has anyone (non-promo/press/DJ people) been able to get the single yet? I'm not sure if it isn't really out, or just sold out right now. Some of the catalouge is. Frustrating because I was going to order a few other 12"s at the same time (don't know if it makes any difference to the postage cost).

obligatory mailout with small bit of news

OUT NOW ELLEN ALLIEN – „MAGMA“ (BPC 105)NEW SINGLE INCL. REMIXES BY THE MFA & MODESELEKTOR

i'm experiencing musical boredom and think I really need to go back to this cd. yeah, the first track IS great. for some reason though never got into washing machine is speaking. love the your body is my body is awesome.

I was fairly tempted to fork out for one that got offered on ebay recently... but the thought of it having copy-bleeps on, and possibly not having the vid make me not bother. That and it's not SO long to wait now for a real copy.

when someone played this album at a house party the other week I had a total rush-of-excitement squealy reaction to the opening bars of 'Come' and demanded that the obligatory dancing-around-living-room section of the house party begin there and then.

i was driving to school today and when the big orchan chimes of the mfa remix of 'magma' came on i was so startled! james holden played this when i saw him dj like 3 weeks ago and i'd been dying to know what it was...sounds great on a big sound system

ich liebe ellen - and her underarms. i keep on looking at that picture...yowza. berlinette seemed boring to me too - for about a whole month and then i got into it intensely - and more and more into it -- but i had to dig and persist and only b/c Phil S. kept telling how great it was and I didn't have much else at the time. The new one is much more immediate and its pretty different and I don't think she risks losing new listeners on it.

This and Berlinette are both great, but very different sonically. I can more easily imagine this one passing people by on a casual listen though. Download both and see which you prefer.

xpost - which German techno albums is Berlinette blander than? (or, request for suggestions plz) Genuinely curious. It hooked me from the word go for literally months and well, I like it and rate it more than I want to say (out of fear of ridicule mostly). I'll see how I feel about it in five years time :-)

xxpost - don't sleep on Stadtkind, all her mix cd's are pretty exceptional, weiss.mix maybe having a slight over the others for badass-ness.

they really are very different and depends on what you like normally like to grab at you first. i actually can see someone not getting into thrills immediately, however IMO its a better album in that it seems to have no excess baggage, it seems lean and close to the source - i think maybe she downloaded it from her vein or something. its hard for me to discuss the 2 though - its over my head. thats why i concentrate on her as a sex object.

OK, I exaggerated a bit :) ... but I thought that "Berlinette" tried to cover "minimalism" + "playful melodies", much in the same vein as The Modernist (actually, like most of Jorg Burger's work), Jurgen Paape, and Salz. "Berlinette" is half of a good album but it just didn't hook me for 50 minutes.

That's an odd comparison (Burger vs Allien.) Surely Burger has had his hand in pop productions ("Everybody's Kissing," a couple of tracks on "Kangmei," his "Teil 1" compilation,) but none of his full-lengths as The Modernist or even Triola are as pop-based as those. I'd even say his Modernist albums are kind of hard to listen through in one sitting. His tracks always work better individually to me (see "Apple Electronics," "Abi 99," or "Waldorf Hysteria".) "Berlinette" also has about as much idm/glitch elements as Burger has used in his entire career.

Not that all simple things need to be more complex, nor do heavy things need better larfs, but yeah: I do miss Allien's playfulness. What I get from Thrills is not a natural outgrowth but a conscious break from her own musical trajectory-- not to mention Bpitch in general, however much either has been dictated by other musicians (Apparat, Smash TV). She's onto some good shit here, but there's too much learning on the job.

So is he suggesting that up to now her musical trajectory has been dictated by Apparat and this album is her conscious effort to break from that trajectory? That's a weird assertion, since this album reminds me more of Apparat than Berlinette did, though it's still a fairly distant similarity.

I thought it was a fair enough review, I could grasp from the reviewers perspective where he was failing to connect with it.

Although, I don't feel the same way myself. It was worthwhile reading. But I'm hardly surprised they haven't found much to like in her latest direction *at all* (come on, it's Pitchfork! They love real songs & real music & 'meaning' and above all boring-as-fuck indie rockers 4eva

maybe I'm reading it wrong but it struck me as implying that she was assisted by others early on to a degree that their input was responsible for her sound (ignoring her remix work, label runnin', etc).

I'd say the main difference between Thrills and Berlinette is that she is moving more towards the dance side of the dance/electro equation, and she is more interested in exploring analog textures (this is the part that reminds me of Apparat- whom by the way, based on what I've heard, is a less original talent than Allien herself, and for all I know, the influence probably flows more in the other direction).

(and now the rest of the post... bloody "heart" tags chopped it again)

... It is something of a shame when the previous Allien reviews have been excellent. I'm wondering if Stylus is waiting till the US release (but they gave 'Berlinette' only faint praise if I recall).

I'll admit that this, and the Isolée review earlier this week were the motivation for my comments here - Pitchfork: Classic or Dud?

I'm almost tempted to start a MU v.s Ellen Allien thread sometimes, the comparison comes up so often I even ended up getting a copy of Afro Finger & Gel (and getting burned! sorry, they're entertaining at best, over-wacky & close to dull at the worst, but at no point 'riotous' as I had been sorely misled to believe).

I thought it was a fair enough review, I could grasp from the reviewers perspective where he was failing to connect with it

Yes, he makes it pretty clear why he didn't like it as much as Berlinette, but his reasons seem pretty wrong-headed: like not liking a chocolate cake because it's not cherry pie. I hate to bring up the dreaded "r" word (hint: it ends in -ism) but that comes through pretty loud & clear in that review.

a red flag went up when I read the bit I bold'd up above, which was either phrased badly/read incorrectly OR it's saying "oh she is trying to make it on her own, without help. how nice. fair effort, not quite there yet..."

This rubs me the wrong way, although there's some truth to it:..surely to land itself on Fabriclive 30 between some Melchior throwback and a Senor Coconut track, remixed by Crazy Remixer Dude Nobody Actually Cares About. I guess there's merit there, but I'm not smiling; not dancing either.Look, a vague generalization that is careful to snipe at past mixes with pointed accusations that create a landscape of eye rolling! Yes, Akufen included a Senor Coconut song. Yes, the throwback critique is used in reference to a lot of token inclusions.

This entire "dude nobody actually cares about" crap is awful in that it directly links the idea of cred into this whole ordeal. I swear that there's the implication that either: a.) stupid techno fans think you aren't cool if you don't know who crazyremixer is, how lame, b.) I am too busy to care about some song when I have no idea who mixed it.Fuck that noise, really. You're a grown man reviewing music that's "faceless," just critique whether the song is good and whether it fits in. And do it on a review of an actual mix, not as a vague allusion on some hackjob against someone with a recognizable name.

The Apparat thing: I was talking to Nick at some point, and he said (hopefully I'm not misrepresenting this) that his estimation of her personal skills dropped somewhat when he found out Apparat contributed a lot of the beats to Berlinette. (I'd never heard that factoid, and haven't since really bothered to look into it.) Anyway, that probably distracts from the thrust of that sentence, right, which seems to say, you know -- it's a break from the directions she's previously gone in (even if those directions possibly had some small thing to do with Apparat).

The space-and-size issues still seem to me like the main thing the album has to offer. I suppose I'm with people like Nick in thinking that more sculpted movement would make it a better record, and I suppose I'm with people like Nick in thinking that the way Berlinette took on the "roles" of different genres at once was a more interesting or useful or exciting thing to do than this. But I'm down with Thrills, mostly.

Well, I'm down with not really caring about beat-provenance, but some of the mechnics of the Berlinette beats still amaze all hell out of me. With electronics there's a tendency to just fit beats into genres -- IDM beats, tech beats, etc -- but some of the ones on that album just sound like gorgeous little machines, and I could probably listen to them alone for hours. On the other hand, I can't imagine that there's that much of a disconnect between the beatmaking and the rest, because everything on there is so marvelously integrated.

you have someone (misled, betrayed!) implying that because Apparat contributed beats to Berlinette (how many beats? which songs?!), this means her entire discography/creative direction of her label just might not be her doing, but rather perhaps one of her (male) counterparts is really manning the decks.

unless he has inside info ("Ellen was busy listening to the latest Kompakt comp, stealing ideas! Apparat wrote the whole thing!"), that leap of logic seems baseless.

The workings of the label part was kind of off-topic for the article, but the random genre criticisms that have vague-yet-specific references really come out of nowhere. If Nick has issues with the culture as a whole, I wish he'd address them, fully, elsewhere. From the review I'd expect it to be a 3 or 4 yet he still rated it a 7 without talking about the music so much.

She's also set to appear on two tracks on fellow Berliner T. Raumschmiere's new album, Blitzkrieg Pop, due August 23 on Mute and is working on a 12" for Ghostly International, which should be out by the end of the year. Guess I'll be buying the T. Raumschmiere album after all then.

Also, wanted to add... with a bit of poking around, you can get a better quality (better than a realplayer stream) version of the Sónar set (also mentioned on Pfork) from her website btw. I didn't realise that's what it was until now actually! Sort of makes more sense now, how long did she play for after this? Was anyone at this? And what the hell is that track 45 mins in which is like deadly, precisely controlled acid-303 stabs + vicious military drumming?? *swoon*. I really should just make a fan page instead of bumping this thread again shouldn't I? Sorry :-( (although if anyone has answers to those questions, do say!).

at sonar ellen allien played this track at 6am (I know 'cos I looked at my watch straight after I turned to mark all goggle-eyed and wowed) it was just vicious, these dry hilti gun stabs broken up by the scream of some witch on pills. (actually looking at the schedule, she started at 5.15 so I guess it's the track you're talking about fandango).

heh. cheers :) it's more curiosity really, I wondered if it was something really well known.

I've heard her play things in a similar vein before, layering really active/pure acid lines over different, busy, breakbeat tracks... It's perhaps not anything super-original(?), but it stood out enough when I heard it before that it seemed like it.

Gear, I totally don't want to put words into Nick's mouth on this one, so I'm a little loathe to overinterpret that sentence. What I will say is that the syntax of the sentence itself doesn't make the leap of logic you're talking about; it pretty much says "however much" someone else might have been involved, as if it doesn't matter either way. In fact, the overall point seems to be that the new album is a break from Ellen's history, regardless of who may have contributed to that history or how much; i.e., the difference isn't in Apparat's involvement versus non-involvement, but in her personal decision to shift direction.

It's kind of weird to talk about "Thrills" being a big break from Ellen's history, considering that her history as a solo artist basically only consists of one album. One album does not establish much of a history. If you go back to her mix albums, then "Thrills" seems even less like a break. It seems like a natural progression of the styles she was exploring as far back as "Flieg Mit".

There's 3 12" e.p.'s and a debut album 'Stadtkind' (plus many remixes, later collected on 'Remix Collection') before 'Berlinette' :-O

In fact 'Thrills' rather reminds me of a more fleshed-out, extended return (unfinished business?) to the sound of the pre-Stadtkind stuff (including 'Dresden', which I mentioned upthread), that of it which I've heard anyway*, no glitches, expression coming mainly from very soft & simple basic loops.

Even I'll admit to having conflicting feelings about how far I'd like her to experiment with this kind of style though. If her records are going to be seen as just dancefloor material... I think she's capable of taking things so much further, when she feels like doing so.

*If anyone _has_ those early records, I'm very curious to give them a listen (not assuming they'll be great or anything obv) - gmail me!.

I'm curious why anyone would think that Apparat is the secret genius behind the things they like on "Berlinette". If he has anything like those tracks in his discography, I'd appreciate someone pointing me towards them. The Apparat I have ("Duplex") is much more ambient IDM/Aphex Twin type of stuff, without the pop appeal or dance-floor imperatives that drive Allien's work.

They have kind of collaborated on one track before actually o. nate. "Fuse" on the b-side of Apparat's 'Koax' 12" on Bpitch. You could give that one a listen. It hardly reveals any new insights though.

Basically my take (and Gear!'s I presume) on this 'controversy' is that there's easily enough material out there already that stands up next to anything off "Berlinette" (and could actually have slotted in there without being out of place) to credit the sound and purpose of that album to either producer (Apparat or SmashTV) in it's entirety.

For fans of the previous Ellen Allien sound, there is this to look forward to (assuming it will sound like that of course).

I think I meant (upthread) I have conflicting feelings about how far I want her to continue with the "Thrills" sound, I do want her to 'experiment'. Just because she sounds comfortable & confident on this one, doesn't mean it will be the direction she continues in forever I don't think.

I agree with Ronan. I'm not really feeling Thrills. First Allien thing that has left me a bit cold. (I love The Remix Collection, Berlinette and all the DJ mixes.) I was hoping for more stuff like "Bang Bang".

There are a couple of nice things in the second half. e.g. "Ghost Train" and "She Is With Me".

(just read) Michael Gill's review of Thrills in Stylus is wonderful. not sure whether approp./or need to post a link here. really made me want to listen again as i burned out quickly on this album but possibly b/c its heavy duty and it just don't get any lighter with play. i'm betting hearing the ideas expressed so well in language might remedy that a bit for me.

Hsu's right that this is definitely a night album - it sounds very good at night. Of Allien's prior work, this reminds me the most of her excellent mix album Flieg Mit - she achieves a similar aesthetic here, except this time making the music herself rather than mixing other people's tracks.

I don't consider it a disappointment at all. I wouldn't be surprised if I end up listening to Thrills more than Berlinette, which has some great tracks but is also a bit uneven. There's nothing on Thrills as cringe-inducing as "Trashscapes". But I can understand that people who were hoping she would turn into Lali Puna might be let down that she doesn't sing much on this one.

It's the most teutonically "listening" album I've heard in a while.. meaning I can't muster the desire to want to pick this up on vinyl and want to DJ it, despite it being pulsing all the way through. However, I do want this on CD to listen to.

I DID pick up the "Magma" remix 12".. with remixes by Allien, the MFA, and Modeselektor. The MFA remix is predictable but certainly the best of them all.. although the Allien remix makes for better dance fodder than the album version. I'm getting tired of Modeselektor at this point.. they almost seem to force themselves to have to do SOMETHING jagged with any beat and fuck with it, even if it's a bad idea.

While it's fair to suggest that listeners hoping for a more expansive, complex album from EA might be disappointed by "Thrills", I'd say this is the album that was right for her to make at this time: a lean, muscular, bass-heavy techno record. Given her serious views on techno, indutrialization, Berlin, etc., accompanying this release, I'd have lifted a brow if she dropped a follow-up as warm and poppy and accessible as "Berlinette", which while pretty good, still brought the "Berliniamsburg" wince out of me.

Given that silly Road Warrior URB spread following "Berlinette", and the cringe-inducing "electroclash-hipster" cover for "My Parade", I actually really like the sophistication of "Thrills", the single-minded seriousness she brought to it. Not pop. Not glitch. TECHNO record. Bam.

Plus, for whatever it's worth, the first Grace Jones record I heard was "Slave To The Rhythm", which I purchsed when I was fifteen based on the cover alone. While I liked the record, I was disappointed by how soft and convential it was in relation to the cover. I was expecting something really tough and strange and other worldy.

When I first heard "The Brain Is Lost", my initial thought was "THAT is what 'Slave To The Rhythm' should have sounded like!", based on the cover.....

I'm not trying to persuade anyone... I wouldn't mind erasing some of my gushing upthread at this point perhaps.

I hadn't really heard many artists who'd created warm and inviting sounding 'electro'. In a non-pop sense. I think I associated the term with the very opposite, which threw me way off on first listen. I've heard some since though, and it makes a bit more sense now,

But the 'sounds' here have definitely had time to sink in way past the level of familiarity by now and I still dig them a whole heap. "Refurbished" does seem an apt term to apply to her new/old explorations here, it isn't in any way a 'retro' record for me. Nostalgic at moments, but that's a different kind of dip into the past.

I've made a total 180 on this one and really like it now. It's still very unfamiliar and I imagine I'm gonna love it by the time I really know it. The sparsely used vocals are always really execellent.

not at least in the 2000-2005 definition of IDM as "kerwhackity-whackity" hip-hop/gabber DSP overdriven fusion. in my obviously all-knowing mind, nothing with a predominant 4/4 signature is really IDM these days (leaving open the question of what may have passed for IDM back in the artificial intelligence days, when it was more of an attitude than a distinct set of sonic/rhythmic characteristics).

I kind of agree with mark, plus I feel there is a definite emphasis on craziness/dischord which feels more idm/techno than the predominantly house aesthetic of alot of other German producers at the moment. The anti-pop thing, this is a very unglam serious record.

I think Philip is OTM, this isn't really IDM. Adding to his comments, Thrills has an almost stadium size feel to it (in overall sound and in the way the melodies jump out) which is a kind of extroversion most IDM producers shun.

Ronan is right about this being a serious and cold record, and I do agree that can be a turn off for most people. I am, however, fascinated by the mechanical/urban images the tracks create (my Stylus goes in-depth about that.)

i will regret putting this out here but...maybe knowing very little about what its sounded like prior to Ellen etc., i'm mostly going on my own ideas and feelings of how traditional dance music has failed. i thought that idm was meant to deal (atleast partially) with establ. deeper connection between the visceral and mental - which i think she does here - "fascinated by the mechanical/urban images the tracks" - totally, the fact that its danceable is just a natural by-product of her amazing talent to reveal the structure/pulse inherent in such things. i'm amazed by the tracks the mechanical/urban images create. and i know its just amazing descriptive powers and tapping into common denominator of human experience, but it feels so real. -phil this is like last nites conversation...and feel like its still going nowhere/in circles!

susan every time you post something insightful you temper it with a self-effacing disclaimer! ilm is a pretty gruesome place at the best of times but don't hold out on us ok? your posts have been rad so far.

Susan completely OTM. There are some moments on the album, especially at the end, where I'm alaways thinking "damn, she is saying so much more with this texture/melody than vocals could ever do".In a way, it feels very introspective and intimate, always looking inwards or treating the other as a mirror ("your body is my body"), but on the other hand it always sounds steeped in a wider environment, the city, the club, the music.

I think the album kind of gets off to a slow start. The first track is actually one of the less interesting ones to me. But it picks up as it goes along. I think it contains some of the best work she has yet done. I think it falls somewhere between IDM, dance, and electro-pop - in the unique space that Allien has been exploring for the past few years.

No, no, no! Susan is SO OTM w/r/t the post that starts out with her "regrets", in terms of EA finding/channeling the inner pulse of mechanics/urbanism, and I'll add industrialization, post-industrialization, modernism, and maybe even post-modernism to that as well. Ronan finds the album too cold, which I sort of agree with, but I think there is a serious beauty in that. You have to remember that this is an intentionally SERIOUS record, that she's addresing her place in techno, her own identity, how it relates to Berlin, how it relates to Detroit, etc., etc.

the elegant mechanics of "Come", which i think is far and away the best track, had me wondering last nite if she wasn't somewhat of a virtuoso/modern day master. Last nite i listened on better headphones and was clean blown by the tight/perfect timing and in general the layeredness she achieves without relying on harmonics and in general keeping within the same basic family of sounds and timing --- seemed key to the machine/organic connection she's made. Jsoulja, I agree the coldness is atleast in part due to the subject matter, yet i wonder if maybe she's missed a component as shouldn't this totally engage us?-as much as I'm totally in awe of these tracks, its sorta hard for me to listen to them without over engaging my brain and getting a headache. I feel like ideally I should be able to feel them more. "Washing Machine is Speaking" is a fun track too. I wasn't feeling it at all before.

Hmm- I guess there IS something missing, but I've yet to identify it. Given the complexity of the issues addressed with this record, it's a bit surprising (albeit refreshing, too) that her sound approach would be so straight-forward and simple. I took a stab up-thread to explain why I think that is, and why I like it, but I'm none-the-less eager to hear some of these tracks remixed. I'm just relieved she pulled the pop elements so obvious to Berlinette- on this record, that would have been missing the plot, and possibly heading down a more commercial road, never to return.

i find this album to be very easy to engage with, it is almost like a blank slate. i also find it to be less cold than either of her previous albums. that's probably the arp talking. the tracks sound like they are 120bpm, but they all hover around 128. i wish the tracks were slower actually, but then it might not sound so techno. i think it has a very late night humid vibe to it.

er....i got a ellen allien sonar 2005 mix from that beatfreakx site and it sounds nothing like the sonar 2005 set on her site, its got art of noiseand studff and its a lot more noisy and banging?!?! did she play twice? whast the answer?

one was a quick 20 minute blast at Nitsa (check the Sonar thread) the other (on her site) was a portion of her main floor show, and unusually subdued and minimal-tech-dubby (up to that point, it may have got more interesting later on?).

oh yeah the nitsa one was wicked! i was there but missed her sonar one cos i was in r hawtin. i love the idea of 20 min sets, it was perfect. she came in, fucked the place up, and finished. just like that

I don't suppose anyone's got that BBC One World session to YSI have they?

Nice write up here for this mix - A set that Ellen Allien recorded as a Sónar promo, originally hosted by Samurai FM, is now streaming from the "Online Radio" section of Allien's own website. Like everything Allien does, it's wet and dry, brainy and ravey, shocking and blasé all at once. I didn't know half the tracks-- like the crickets-in-rocking-chairs opener, or the plaintive yet blissed out Basic Channelly number that follows it-- but a helpful ILMer posted the tracklist here, so we can all trainspot together as Allien veers from planar click tracks into ridiculous kazoo fantasias, and from massive overdriven hangar bangers into the epic, John-Williams-goes-raving conclusion of Paul Kalkbrenner's newest "Ta-tü-tata", a record which-- like Sascha Funke's "Boy", also a recent Bpitch release-- everyone should own.

Funny how it never really clicked with me completely before now (found that whilst already listening and googling, like most pieces of "news" on Pitchfork I completely miss them at the time 'cos the layout is so crapshite) I love how it's so airy yet claustrophobic. I just wish I could squeeze it all down into 45 mins, it's a bit slow to unfold (and the mixing on the last three tracks is erm.. not the best, esp. for her).

Sounds interesting. I just listened to Thrills tonight for the first time in a few months and found myself enjoying it more than I thought I would. I still think the first track is a bit dull, but the rest are pretty good. It sounds better at night and at a relatively loud volume. I listened to it while driving, and it hit the spot nicely. Maybe it will creep back onto my year's best list.

Yeah, I'm not sure what to expect really. Hopefully not anything too similar to stuff already released by either of them. Wonder if that proposed Ghostly International single will ever come out?

I'm still excited about the interview where she mentioned ideas for her Fourth album! (i.e. not this one).

Either way a semi-quiet stopgap 2006 could be good... I feel like I might burn out on Bpitch before I burn out on Ms. Allien though (and perhaps current dance stuff generally, maybe it's winter blues or I've just been following stuff, in my way, to the exclusion of too much other music... either way I've been a little less enthused of late).

If Stadtkind didn't exist I'd have a little more faith in that notion...

She calls it their "first proper collaboration" anyhow, can't see any reason why she'd be obtuse about it. Holger Zilske has been credited with co-production on all three albums so far, I think he deserves more of the credit myself, for the sake of accuracy.

New album :)! I have spent some more time lately listening to Thrills. Feel that its as good or better than I thought it was, but remains somewhat of a difficult experience. Still listening to some of Berlinette too -mostly Augenblick. AugB and parts of Thrills fulfulling the guitar/strings/metallic sound i'm missing from rock -- and almost feels like a better replacement. I still think the first track of Thrills is insane.

i don't know if ellen herself falls through the cracks - she has a massive rep as a dj, and loads of respect for being bpitch matriarch etc - but this album definitely seems to have. maybe cos it came out so early in the year. it's a top 10 lock for me though.

i think if she had broader exposure she would get alot of crossover interest and some sort of explosion would occur. but i thought she was huge with electronica/dance/techno community in Europe, or is it just Germany?

xposts - Actually you're right... her DJ profile has got a significant bump, and she wasn't exactly 'obscure' before, and I can now, if I so wish buy her record in Virgin Megastore so I should be happy!

I just find this rather slow, steady uptake in general (and Bpitch too, if the boat hasn't been missed completely now) frustrating. But then I'm a total fanboy and probably have all this totally out of perspective.

Susan, I'm not even sure if 'electronica/dance/techno' is 'huge' in Europe by the standards of previous years. It's also hard to gauge living in England (not London for me), it feels like a really backwards country a lot of the time now since the Britpop years. Not that d/t/e automatically automatically = forwards thinking, but dance music doesn't seem to be viewed as a creative sector here unlike er... The Libertines?? Oh, and Grime.

As far as "broader exposure" goes... I have to give credit to Pitchfork there (not that I loved the Thrills review, but they do cover her) the dance media have given her due time too, the parts of it that aren't completely conservative anyway. She's getting there.

"electronica/dance/techno" is big in spain and germany at least (and i think france, to some extent) but that really means more in terms of media exposure and club/festival bookings. i don't think CD sales are terrific, though vinyl's sure easier to come by here (but this is a market where selling 8000 copies of a 12" is considered akin to going platinum). mainly it's that people don't screw up their faces and look like you're a puppy-killer when you like techno; they just ask if you were at creamfields with them this summer, and how much did you pay for pills.

i do think ellen and bpitch have done a very good job of breaking into US indie-centric media, along with kompakt and, before them (and more indie), warp.

Just like Berlinette* wasn't boring & straight enough for the techno purists, but way too danceable for the IDM geeks.

OTM. I thought it was too polished ... too much of the Kompakt-esque smoothness (which I like ordinarily) ... I strongly prefer the dirtier, sloppier "Thrills" (particularly stuff like "The Brain Is Lost").

I've finally gotten over the hump and am totally into Thrills now. Washing Machine is probably the only song that I don't totally love. I don't know what happened, but suddenly I'm listening to this completely effortlessly now. I'm probably finally hearing the techno album that others talked about from the beginning. Before it felt obsessed with seeing the dissection of the parts or something, but now its like all sex and muscle and brain as sex and muscle - doesn't feel so distracting that its exposed or something and i'm just enjoying the better look but can feel the function too. whatever. Its damn good. If this really has fallen through the cracks, its a total shame -this is the most satisfying thing I've heard in a long time. She must have had a good time making this.

I appreciate this a lot more at the end of the year than when I first heard it. A really inspired, unexpected follow up and what can I say... I look forward to more of whatever comes!

It was always going to be a tricky one though, I mean "Berlinette" was just one of those huge, huge records for me personally. Also that has 'dirt' too (that wildy flanging, filthy bassline in Abstract Pictures - OMG) but yes, I can totally understand it coming over more considered, produced, premeditated overall. Thrills manages to do 'mimimal (in the most UN-minimal, fattened up & slamming way possible) and 'raw' at the same time.

I think Thrills is kind of warm and cold at the same time. The chords are mostly minor-key and the lyrics are few and far between, which gives it a cold, impersonal vibe, but at the same time the synth sounds are very analog and warm. I like that it's not as busy as Berlinette - more straightforward, driving, steady tempos and no extra elements added just for the sake of ornamentation - each element is only applied when needed. That lean, muscular sound just begs to be played loud. I'm surprised more people don't mention "Naked Rain" - that's a real standout track for me.

rereading/remembering upthread about your warmth issue Ronan -the type of warmth Thrills provides feels better to me than Berlinette's. so maybe if you didn't enjoy B, maybe you'll like T eventually. i just know when people say this electronica is so "warm" i often don't agree - feels like there's emotive melody or vocals or organic or lush sounds laid over some totally opposing material and i feel annoyed to try to make it work. i had that problem with some Berlinette tracks, but with Thrills its much more integrated. Mabye b/c its less about warmth of emotions than it is about the well...the body, or atleast some other more simple but all consuming aspect of being alive. its all the sex/hunting/building/running/breathing we have to do so much that that might as well just not worry about anything else. atleast this is how i'm feeling it right now.

Yeah, I don't find it as austere or forbidding as a lot of people say either. It's moody at times sure, but not in that ever-so-slightly-boring melancholic Mathew Jonson kinda way.

I love 'Naked Rain', those airy, soothing but forceful synths are as satisfying as any point in 'Mandarine Girl' for me. 'She Is With Me' seems underappreciated too... I flipped out completely the first time I heard (a sample of) it. I loved the off-hand description I read somewhere about "she even finds time to break a piano over Autechre's knee" zing!

Clearly I could still write a great deal of crap about this record and what it seems to describe so effortlessly with sound for me. But I'll spare y'all that.

"Clearly I could still write a great deal of crap about this record and what it seems to describe so effortlessly with sound for me. But I'll spare y'all that"

altho prob not apparent, i'm restraining myself too!and yeah i would say it moody and somewhat emtional too -i don't mean to describe it so ridiculously Ayn Rand? but I think she's celebrating some of those things outwardly.

To me it's a very different sound to the other house/techno I listen to, would it be fair to suggest that although this album is quite faceless and tracky on first impressions, it actually has a real stylistic quirk which really separates it from alot of club music?

Does it separate it? and how? I'm quite interested in that. Donut expressed similar feelings upthread, about how much of a 'listening' album it is. Is it actually hard to play out technically? or just to find the right mood/moment for it?

I don't listen to a lot of house, but the rhythmic feel of "Thrills" seems different to me than a lot of house. More of a techno feel, not as much disco in it. Also the tempo doesn't seem quite right for dancing - more suitable for aerobics or something.

xpost - The whole field of genre labelling seems a tangled nightmare at the moment, which is also probably healthy, but still I find "Thrills" touching on House/ElectroHouse (and as you've pointed out before maybe descended from her "Fleig Mit" mix)... but no way would I sit it more than 25% in that category. It's quite a stretch for my understanding of what I take the term to represent (lighter, more playful & nimble dance music, less thumping & banging, more shuffling).

xxposts - I've actually heard quite a few mixes go south attempting to get her records in. Except for her own, unsurprisingly!

I heard one of the djs from the robots crew in nyc mix in "Your Body of My Body" excellently into a techno set. A bunch of Luciano remixes were played around it, but I don't remember the songs it was mixed into and from.

I can't imagine playing stuff out off this record, but I'd be interested to hear if people are, anyone know?

i've heard 'magma' played out quite a lot (and have played it myself), and it always got a great reaction - it definitely felt like one of the anthems of the summer for me. i haven't heard 'come' but that would definitely get me going, and i think 'washing machine is speaking' and 'the brain is lost' would go down v well too.

o nate otm about the cold/warm duality of the album. i'd agree with susan too - there's something very physical, but also very internalised, about thrills, like maybe it's replacing the blood running through yr veins. susan, i'm curious as to what you don't like about 'washing machine is speaking'? that was my immediate favourite and still one of my highlights.

did anyone else read the great ellen interview in plan b back when this came out? she said lots of interesting things about how she made it.

Apart from "turning the knobs is endless fun" I didn't remember her saying much interesting in that particular interview w/r/t producing? Here, if anyone wants to read it [mods plz delete links if I am killing print media & putting alex out of a job :( ]

playing them out, it may be hard to modulate them enough to keep them from sneaking out on their own and making you feel like you're just taxiing her music around. although i personally wouldn't have a problem with that. But beyond that issue, I think the tracks themselves have great potential for dancefloor/club environ.

Your Body is My Body -- even at 8am on the subway, I'm totally in the hands of that heavy chugging sound mixed with the metal swirlies

Come as some sort of opening, definitely.

Brain is Lost when you're assured that no one in the room is sober or can move quickly.

and I can't remember what the others sound like. Lex, I'll have to listen to Washing Machine again b/c I can't remember why I didn't like it.

via earplug - "Ellen Allien and Apparat are finishing up their first collaborative album; the Bpitch Control proprietor promises a blend of "open-air dance tracks, breakbeat beauty songs with my voice, and listening tracks — with guitars, bleeps, and emotional waves growing and jumping from one track to the next"

I'm somehow more excited about the 'listening tracks' that the rest of it, perhaps because I'd rather this was a total detour than "Berlinette" revisited... but I'll surely be excited about it all the closer it gets to April. Maybe time for a new thread in 2006?

Felt compelled to listen to Thrills all morning. Despite its title Your Body Is My Body is probably my favourite track, for the hum that drifts in at 1:20 and for nailing the album's cold/warm vibe. Surprised at how little it's mentioned in this thread.